Sweden | Global Focus

No other donor provides UNHCR with more unearmarked funding than Sweden.

No other donor provides UNHCR with more unearmarked funding—the kind of funding UNHCR can spend on the most urgent needs anywhere in the world—than Sweden. Its leadership in providing such reliable multi-year and flexible funding allows UNHCR to send resources to areas where the needs are the greatest and respond to forgotten and underfunded emergencies. As a strong advocate for the protection of women and girls, Sweden and UNHCR work together to promote and safeguard the rights of forcibly displaced communities in a sustainable manner.

Sweden’s partnership with UNHCR stretches back decades. It was one of the first signatories of the 1951 Refugee Convention and has been a member of UNHCR’s Executive Committee since 1958. Looking into the future, Sweden and UNHCR will continue to work together to find solutions for displaced people by ensuring reliable multi-year financing, providing resettlement places and advocating for solutions to allow people to return home.

We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. Conflict, persecution and civil strife has uprooted more than 70 million people from their homes. UNHCR is operating in extremely complex environments and a central challenge for the organization is having the ability to respond, especially as more and more of the funding UNHCR receives is earmarked, meaning it must be spent in a certain place or on a certain activity.

Sweden’s dedication to providing unearmarked funds to UNHCR supports our work around the world, ensuring we can respond quickly when disasters strike, bolstering an otherwise forgotten or under-funded crises, and enables UNHCR to implement programmes as fully as possible. By providing funds in this way, Sweden has shown a great deal of trust in UNHCR and our partners, allowing us to deliver on our core mandate to reach the most vulnerable people of concern, and help them to thrive, not just survive. Sweden’s unearmarked funds give UNHCR vital flexibility to allocate the funds where the needs are greatest. As a donor, Sweden sets an example within the humanitarian community.

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“If you give, you receive blessings. Something good will come.”

After Heydy Tabares fled Colombia, she came to Panama and became a part of an urban agriculture project in Panama City. She grows her own vegetables and aims to use her vegetables to make food for her own restaurant one day. This livelihood initiative is a part of the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework, a collaborative and comprehensive approach to refugee protection which is being implemented in six Central American countries. UNHCR’s response in Panama is supported by unearmarked funds, generously donated by countries like Sweden.

©UNHCR/Diana Diaz

“We cut trees for charcoal and is important to plant constantly so if one day we go back to South Sudan we can leave this place as we found it.”

Abraham Bidal is planting trees around his house in the Rhino camp in Uganda. As a South Sudanese refugee, he has seen the tree cover disappear and understands the pressure refugees and host communities put on forest resources. Tree nursey sites, such as this one in the Rhino camp settlement, supports community empowerment by allowing refugees to get involved with seedling production and receive training in tree production. Through unearmarked support provided by Sweden UNHCR is able to support initiatives such as these in different parts of the world.

©UNHCR/Michele Sibiloni

“They’ve taught us so much, from online banking to Google Maps.”

Setrag Godoshian and Sara Alaydi are Syrian refugees who work for IT Guides Sweden, an organization bringing young refugees together with seniors who need help with IT. The refugees are given the opportunity to practice their Swedish and the seniors receive assistance with their smartphones. This special relationship reflects Sweden’s approach to resettlement – offering meaningful jobs to young refugees and encouraging integration into their adopted Swedish communities.

Fabiana lives with her husband and six children in Banjul, The Gambia.

They’ve lived in The Gambia since fleeing their Oussou village in Casamance, Senegal in 2006. Senegalese refugees have been socially integrated into The Gambia, which has hosted some of them for more than 35 years. UNHCR supports programmes helping Senegalese refugees like Fabiana open and expand her restaurant. Since The Gambia receives no earmarked funding, the allocation of unearmarked contributions from countries like Sweden is critical in ensuring refugees continue to receive support and assistance.

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